Cooking therapy…feeding my stomach & my soul!

Category Archives: Recipes

This is my first blog posting & it’s kinda scary. I decided to start with a recipe that I mentioned in my about page cause it’s a favorite of everybody. I learned this two Christmases ago when I made a combo of goodies for friends. Included in the goodies where these brownies, dark chocolate fudge & a Mrs. Field’s style chocolate chip cookie. When I saw the recipients of these goodies later, everybody raved about the brownies cause they are really fudgy & chocolaty which apparently is a win in everybody’s book!

My first lessons with a blog are that taking food pictures is not as easy as it sounds. I have a decent camera, but apparently I take better pictures of my dogs than my food. If it counts for anything, I tried really hard and I can only get better…I hope. Actually coming up with a title for the blog was more work than I thought & writing isn’t that hard, but coming up with something to say is hard!

Here’s hoping that chocolate is always a good idea especially dark chocolate. I’m not picky about my cocoa. I just use Hershey’s, but the better the chocolate you are able to use…the better your brownies will be. This is why I use M&M’s for my milk chocolate (plus they make it look colorful) & Ghirardelli 60% cocoa chips for the dark chocolate…still using Nestles for the semi-sweet unless my grocery store puts the Ghirardelli on buy one get one free (bogo)! I don’t like adding nuts to my chocolate. I’m a purist that way, but feel free to do what feels right for you. Everything else, I just try to use fresh ingredients. I’m blessed to have a Costco near by so I buy my eggs & butter in bulk. The rest of the ingredients came from my local Publix which if you are a Southerner is a favorite place to shop even if it can be more expensive…unless you snag the bogos which are always awesome! Plus, I trust their store brand of most items as well.

The only problem with making these brownies is that I don’t need to eat an entire pan of brownies. This is where my neighbors & fellow employees will be taking one for the team or blog in this case. The neighbors win this time, but work won’t be left out as I continue to have the urge to bake. I’ve always found cooking & especially baking to be therapeutic. It lets me be creative in a way that’s satisfying not just to the eye, but to the stomach as well. I hope that everybody enjoys this recipe as much as others have in the past.

Dark Chocolate Brownies

1/2 cup butter, melted 2 eggs

1/4 cup cocoa 2 tsps vanilla

1/4 cup dark cocoa 1/2 cup flour

1 cup sugar 1/4 tsp salt

1-2 cups milk chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate & dark

chocolate chips (or whatever you prefer)

Preheat oven to 350° Grease an 8-inch square pan.

In a medium bowl, combine butter & both cocoas and stir until cocoa is dissolved. Add sugar and mix well. Add eggs individually & stir until well combined. Stir in the vanilla, flour & salt until you no longer see any flour, but don’t over mix or you will have tough brownies. Fold in the 1-2 cups of chips or whatever you prefer. Spread in greased pan & bake approximately 25 minutes. DO NOT OVERBAKE (I can’t stress this enough cause this is where brownies go wrong!)

To double the recipe, bake in a 9×12 inch pan & add 5 minutes to the baking time.